Smoking leads to earlier menopause (along with the other problems)

It’s been long recognised that smokers go through the menopause earlier than non-smokers, and a recent large study confirms this. The lead author is quoted as saying “‘General consensus is that earlier menopause is likely to be associated with the larger number and higher risk of postmenopausal health problems, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and others.”

Of course, smoking causes other problems such as cancer of the lung, mouth, nose, throat, oesophagus, pancreas, kidney, liver, bladder, bowel, ovary, cervix, bone marrow and stomach; and lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema; and poor blood circulation in feet and hands, which can lead to pain and, in severe cases, gangrene and amputation. Ouch.

Never too late to quit: according to the Quit website, “After fifteen years your risk of heart attack and stroke is close to that of a person who has never smoked.”

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About Dr Carolyn Ee

Carolyn is a Sydney-based GP and acupuncturist/Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner who has devoted her career to finding the evidence for health and happiness. She was the first practising medical doctor in Australia to also qualify as a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. She is a post-doctoral researcher at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine and the Chair of the Integrative Medicine Working Group at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Her previous work on acupuncture for menopause was published in a high-impact internal medicine journal. She has appeared on radio and on national television. Carolyn continues to work as a clinician alongside her research work, and is on a journey to find the best way to combine a career and family. She moved in early 2016 from Melbourne to the Northern Beaches of Sydney with her husband and two young children, and enjoys running, high-intensity-interval training, goal-setting, and the occasional eating of cupcakes.